“Big Five Personality Traits And Dream Recall Frequency In Spontaneous Vs. Self-Trained Lucid Dreamers”

Bita Shafiei – Department of Psychology, Rasht Branch, Islamic Azad University, Rasht, Iran – IJoDR

“Acknowledgements – The author would like to thank Michael Schredl for his help with preparing the manuscript.”

Excerpts:

“…lucid dream frequency is moderately associated with lucid dream controlling…

…After the age of 25, a spontaneous onset of lucid dreaming appears to be very infrequent…

…Trained lucid dreamers had shorter lucid dreams but were more likely to take an active role in the development of the lucid dream plot and more likely to try some waking intentions in their lucid dreams, in comparison with spontaneous lucid dreamers (Stumbrys et al., 2014)…

…Internal locus of control…and need for cognition…were found to be correlated with lucid dreaming…

…However, Wolpin, Marston, Randolph, and Clothier (1992) had not succeeded in discovering the relationship between internal locus of control and lucid dreaming frequency…

…Schredl and Erlacher (2004) found small but significant correlation between fantasy and ideas, two facets of openness to experience, and lucid dream frequency. Moreover, in Schredl and Noveski’s (2017) research performed on students, regardless of the negative association between lucid dream frequency and agreeableness, they also pointed out a negative correlation between lucid dream frequency and neuroticism which was considered as a new outcome…

…there was a significant relationship between lucid dreaming and the openness to experience factor. Furthermore, lucid dreaming seemed to be related to the Big Five conscientiousness factor. Additionally, an online survey conducted by Hess, Schredl, & Goritz, (2016) proposed that openness to experience was positively correlated with lucid dreaming frequency, whereas the correlation was negative for agreeableness…

…hypnotic suggestibility…thin boundaries…creativity…and absorption…were found to be related to lucid dreaming frequency…

…In addition, many researches indicated a significant relationship between lucid dream frequency and dream recall…

…As it seems the more people recall their dreams the more chance they have to recall their lucid dreams or in another direction, the more people are familiar with their dreams (i.e. able to better recall them), the more they are likely to recognize them while dreaming…

…openness to experience and extra version were found to be positively correlated with lucid dreaming frequency, while the correlations were negative for agreeableness and neuroticism…

…Some factors such as gender, extraversion, openness to experiences, agreeableness, and dream recall frequency correlate with lucid dreaming frequency among self-trained lucid dreamers. However, only dream recall frequency is in association with lucid dreaming frequency in spontaneous lucid dreamers…

…In addition, the difference between spontaneous and self-trained lucid dreamers regard to lucid dreaming frequency is a considerable finding. Analysis indicated that self-trained lucid dreamers experience lucid dreams more frequently in comparison with spontaneous ones. Lastly, by considering the percentages, self-trained lucid dreamers have the ability of controlling their lucid dreams and take an active role more than the spontaneous group…

…Methodologically, the sample was elicited via a lucid dreaming website, which makes the result biased due to the more interested participants in taking part in this study…

…Based on our finding, there was no gender difference among spontaneous lucid dreamers. However, men seemed more interested in eliciting lucid dreams through training…

…As a result, people who were characterized as extraverted are more likely to experience lucid dreaming. Extraversion is defined as being assertive, active, positive, energetic, and talkative……Extraverted lucid dreamers, by considering those definitions, are willing to talk about their experiences with others which in this case talking about dreams brings about more dream recall…and consequently more lucid dreams…

…Earlier studies demonstrated a positive correlation between openness to experience and lucid dreaming frequency…

…People who score high in this dimension are recognized as creative, imaginary, curious and unconventional. Those with low level are conventional and like the feeling of familiarity…

…Negative correlation between agreeableness and lucid dreaming frequency was another finding…

People with low level of agreeableness are identified as antagonistic, cold and disagreeable (Robbins et al, 2013). Lucid dreamers are more likely to be focused on fulfilling their own needs, and less likely to reflect on the needs of others; they might thus be less agreeable in waking life (Hess et al, 2016)…

…As percentages showed self-trained lucid dreamers appeared to be more active in their lucid dreams…

…trained lucid dreamers were more likely to take an active role rather than a passive role in the development of the dream plot…

…In summary, self-trained lucid dreamers tend to experience lucid dreams more frequent than spontaneous lucid dreamers. Also, openness to experience and agreeableness were negatively correlated with lucid dreaming frequency whereas the correlations were positive between extraversion and dream recall frequency among self-trained lucid dreamers. However, dream recall frequency was the only predictor for lucid dreaming frequency among spontaneous lucid dreamers. Gender had an impact on lucid dreaming frequency only in the group of self-trained lucid dreamers…

…At last, it was demonstrated that self-trained lucid dreamers were more likely to take an active role in their lucid dream…

…Future studies should explore more about the possible differences between self-trained and spontaneous lucid dreamers. It would be also interesting to know what methods were utilized for inducing lucid dreams by self-trained lucid dreamers. Due to the reason that nightmare frequency is correlated with lucid dreaming frequency (Glicksohn, 1989; Hess et al, 2016; Schredl & Erlacher, 2004; Spadafora & Hunt, 1990; Stepansky et al., 1998) and the difference is still not investigated between the two groups of spontaneous and self-trained lucid dreamers, it can be considered as a good idea to fill this gap.” – Bita Shafiei – https://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/IJoDR/article/view/59710/60070

Related Topic(s):

Lucid Dreaming And Locus Of Control

About Lucid Dreaming And Its Relation To Mental Health, Personality, Self-Confidence, Behavior Control…

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I wasn’t tested for autism until I was already working in the field of mental health for several years as a case-manager for clients with autism and other similar conditions. One might wonder how I didn’t figure out my own diagnosis after studying and working directly with these traits for years. My ability to adapt to my particular style of processing was so high, it just didn’t seriously occur to me. Sure, I always felt a bit like the “outsider”, the way most people behaved was a mystery to me since I was a child and if you asked my mother what I was like growing up she’ll say I was a rather quiet, unemotional kid who didn’t even go through the typical “Terrible Twos” stage.

From my perspective, however, I was brimming over with emotions. I felt sadness, fear, joy and inspiration like anyone else, but it never occurred to me that I should be sharing those emotions randomly with others, even if they didn’t ask – which, for many autistics, is often how “normal” people seem to behave. For me, it was easy to set my diagnosis aside and focus on my work, my hobbies, my life. But now that I’ve been writing and publicly speaking about my lucid dreaming experiences over the years, these quiet traits of mine have been pulled back into the light. A number of other high functioning autistics in the public eye, after reading my work or listening to my interviews on radio and podcast shows, have approached me with a, “You DO realize you’re also autistic, right?”.

This prompted me to reevaluate just what my particular processing of information, emotions and my sense of self had to do with the lucid dreaming and astral projection I’d dealt with since I was a child. After years of integrating all of this information I’ve come to believe that higher functioning autistics make for natural lucid dreamers, they just might not realize it. But we need to take a step back first before this will make much sense.

What exactly autism is can be hard to nail down – it’s why we generally refer to it as a “spectrum” of traits rather than a hard and fast description. Given that, I can only speak for myself and how my experience of these qualities affects my consciousness, and thus my lucid dreaming. But I suspect many of you who aren’t on the spectrum are going to relate. To begin with, it all comes down to how we each develop a unique relationship with symbolism.

My second book, “Migration” (currently in the final stages of editing)   focuses on our species’ insanely fast transition from the trees to an online world, and what we’ve missed along the way. Today, our species is processing greater amounts of symbolism from outside sources than any of our ancestors likely ever dreamed possible. In a way, we’ve been put to sleep by this heavy stream of information, of media and narratives; we’ve become entranced by it in ways that aren’t so obvious.

I want you all to pause for a moment and think about what exactly popped into your head when you thought about that notion of symbolism. What does it mean to have a relationship with symbolism? Do you perhaps picture hieroglyphs from some forgotten culture or abstract images or sounds that convey some vague, mysterious meaning? If so, THAT is the very disconnect I want to bring to our attention.

Our bodies weren’t naturally wired for these digital, symbolic worlds playing out on our screens, so we are often blindsided by the massive amounts of ‘information representing something else’ that we process today. Even when we read studies that prove, time and again, that about 75% of all of our emails and texts are misinterpreted on some level by others, it goes in one ear and out the other. We forget that applies to our emails and communications too! Why? For most, symbolism is something “another culture”, or someone else deals with, but not us! No, we like to imagine we deal with information directly, without a “middle man”, so to speak. But as an autistic, I’m always aware of how highly subjective and personal all of communication is.

In my case, I tend to translate symbolism without adding in my own personal feelings and narratives. One of the reasons I love other autistics is that they tend to be some of the most direct, honest people without a lot of hidden agendas behind their words; something that often confuses others. For example, someone says to me, “You know, by the end of April 2020, there were just over 58,000 reported deaths in the US from the Coronavirus.” I hear that statement and I don’t judge it or add in my own personal feelings. It’s not that I don’t have feelings about that fact, but as far as the exchange is concerned, all I can be sure of was what was actually shared with me: “By the end of April 2020, there were just over 58,000 reported deaths in the US from the Coronavirus”.

But someone else hears this and their entire personality, their ego and their emotions become entangled in what was said to them and they translate it quite differently: “Well, that sure is some negative information” they might say or, “That information upsets me, so I don’t think it’s true.” Some may even take it to the level where they say, “Not only do I feel you’re being negative, I feel you’re trying to spread fear and I don’t appreciate that.” And suddenly there’s drama and confusion because someone stated a fact.

These are the sort of responses to information that autistic people generally don’t comprehend. Now, personally, I can comprehend it, but I just don’t personally relate to this manner of handling communication, so I experience a sort of “distance” from it all. We autistics often wonder at “normal” people who add random emotions into conversations, and then often pretend that they didn’t (honestly, it can seem like a disability to us). From my perspective, this muddies communication – which I’m always well aware is extremely complicated enough. Oh, how I long for the days when our journalists were bound by an oath to only relate the facts in a dispassionate, neutral manner and let us figure out how we should feel about them. We’ve become so addicted to being entertained by everything, we expect even our facts and news to be stimulating as well. This is often why I say: The World could really benefit from a little more autism right now.

It should be noted that here’s where autism is so often misunderstood. Because I don’t constantly add in my own feelings into what I relate to people nor mix them into what someone shared with me, it’s often assumed that autistics do not have feelings at all! This is a short-sighted assumption. I feel as deeply and as passionately about things as anyone else can. That information about the virus you just handed to me may very much personally upset me, but I have no reason to think the person who mentioned it intended that information to be negative. So, I treat it as such. And unless I have reason to think this exchange needs to get emotional, I’ll probably just not share my emotions about it with you. It does not mean I don’t have any.

I love what Spock’s father, Sarek, said in the 2009 Star Trek film – and of course anyone on the spectrum knows that the Vulcans are basically a race of high functioning autistics! After Spock has engaged in a grand display of emotion, his father tries to console him. “Emotions run deep within our race.”, he reminds his son. “In many ways more deeply than in humans. Logic offers a serenity humans seldom experience. The control of feelings so that they do not control you.” It’s a beautiful quote that helps explain who Spock really is. He’s not some cold, calculating computer. He feels emotions deeply, he just isn’t throwing them onto everyone like a raging toddler.

Now – What does any of this have to do with LUCID DREAMING? How does this “distance” I experience between my identify, my ego and symbolism play into “waking up” to the reality my dream world manufactures?

Try to appreciate what this experience of symbolism means for me: I approach the mind from a far more impersonal level than most others appear to. I can sort of “stand back” from it and not be personally wrapped up in it to the point where I can’t see where my emotions end and my thinking begins, or who I am within all of it. Therefore, it is far easier for me not to be mesmerized by language, by movies or stories of any kind. Instead of being totally lost in the woods, this distance allows me to float above the trees.

My relationship with Narratives in general tends to be far more removed than what the majority out there seems to experience. I’m not at its mercy. Of course, the nature of this “distance” is where the level of functioning comes strongly into play with autistics. That perceived space can make things very, very difficult for you – or you are able to use it to your supreme advantage. It depends on the size of that gap between the ego and the mind, you might say.

From my vantage point, this means I’ve always been able to stand back – even when I was a child – and see all narratives for what they really were: Highly edited versions of reality that can never, ever, NOT WITH A BILLION WORDS truly contain reality. If you and I run across a wolf in “the wild”, we will share a very direct, non-abstract experience of that encounter. But later, what happened to us will never be fully contained by a narrative. Our tale of meeting the wolf, the picture you snapped of it, even the video I took of it – none of that symbolism will or ever could contain our direct experience of it. In other words, no matter what we do, nothing we transfer to others will leave them with the same impression we experienced in the woods. It’s just the natural limitations of symbolism.

Now consider: Our thinking minds operate on symbolism – all the time. When you can really appreciate this, you begin to “wake up” from all the Narratives and symbolism your brain is being exposed to – as well as the ones it creates.

Are you starting to glimpse how this all relates to dreams? Well, stop and think: What is a “normal” dream? Think about the last dream you remember. In essence, a dream is nothing more than an internal narrative, a story your brain has produced with symbolism. When you feel completely wrapped up in that story, you become bound to it; it possesses a sort of authority over you. You are at its mercy and your awareness is led around by it. When your mind and emotions are deeply entwined with these stories, when there is no “space”, it’s nearly impossible to step back and notice how unreal they really are!

In the end, the truth is that we are NOT our stories! We are consciousness. What we are as conscious beings could never, ever be contained by a story or a narrative. When we appreciate that truth we enjoy a natural “distance”, a glorious space that resides between all the symbolism we’re digesting and What We Truly Are. When you can see your dreams for their true nature you will begin to wake up within them. This is what Lucid Dreaming is: The ability to detach your True Self from the Narrative and realize: Oh! This isn’t real! This “space” that high functioning autistics experience from their mind can also be an opportunity to appreciate a deeper nature of reality. So I ask that you try to tap into your autistic nature and use it to awaken from your Story – whether that story is taking place at night while you sleep, or during the day!

Finally, when you wake up in your dreams, another magical thing happens: A door is suddenly made accessible to you. That door leads to an even larger possibility where your very consciousness is no longer bound to the physical body. By waking up to the truth of the stories we hold near and dear, we are truly free. Not figuratively, not symbolically: LITERALLY.

Ian Jaydid

The Lucid Dreaming – Autism Connection:

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 Author of “Tripping The Field”

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“DREAMING, LUCID DREAMING AND PERSONALITY…

…Our investigation focused on the frequency of the lucid dream experience and its relationship to mental health; behavioral control…; decision behavior…; and spatial abilities… Data analysis of 89 subjects suggested that frequent lucid dreamers…differ from rare…and non-lucid dreamers… by higher scores on the scales of mental health; free of complaints; assertiveness; autonomy, and self-confidence. With regard to behavioral control, decision behavior, and spatial abilities, no significant differences were found between the three dream groups…

…Altogether, our results confirmed the relationship between lucid dreaming and trait aspects of mental health. The increased scores of frequent lucid dreamers on the mental health supported the view…that mental and also physical health are associated with lucid dreaming…

…in sum, it is conceivable that lucid dreaming influences the management of mental conflicts in a positive way and – with qualified therapeutic accompaniment – may have a favourable affect on waking life…

…However, the sample was not representative of the general population and was mainly comprised of spontaneous lucid dreamers. How a training to induce lucid dreams might affect personality and well-being remains open…

…The hypothesis that lucid dreaming interacts with control of behavior in waking life…was not supported. Obviously, behavioral control in waking life, which includes long-term planning and striving for order, includes a different aspect of control than that involved in lucid dreaming. The difference in the character of reality in dreams and in waking life may also play a role in this context. In contrast to waking life, dreams do not have continuity and are short-term occurrences, whereas the waking world offers a continuous reality of space and time where long-term planning is practicable…

…Altogether, dream recall frequency correlated with lucid dream frequency, but showed other relationships to personality traits than lucid dream frequency. This suggests that lucid dreams are a phenomenon to be distinguished from ordinary dreams…  The correlation found between a positive attitude towards dreams and general dream recall frequency agrees with the results of Schredl et al. (1996) as well as Cernovsky (1984)…”

http://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/IJoDR/article/viewFile/142/pdf_3

Related Post(s):

“Lucid Dreaming for Mental Health” – By Maxwell Hunter, TheRaRaRabbit- Psychology

“Nocturnal Consciousness And Its Importance For The Exploration Of Psychopathology”

Studies on the use of lucid dreams to improve emotional fitness/mental fitness/self improvement such as confidence, positive thinking, etc.

MIXING PSYCHOLOGY AND REALITY CHECKS – Using Awareness Of Emotions To Induce Reality Checks and Positive Thinking

The post About Lucid Dreaming And Its Relation To Mental Health, Personality, Self-Confidence, Behavior Control… appeared first on LUCID DREAM RESEARCH.

“Metacognition refers to one’s awareness of and ability to regulate one’s own thinking” – https://sites.google.com/a/uwlax.edu/exploring-how-students-learn/what-s-all-the-fuss-about-metacognition

“…The differences in volumes in the anterior prefrontal cortex between lucid dreamers and non-lucid dreamers suggest that lucid dreaming and metacognition are indeed closely connected… Our results indicate that self-reflection in everyday life is more pronounced in persons who can easily control their dreams,” – Max Planck Gesellschaft –  https://www.mpg.de/8869963/lucid-dreams-prefrontal-cortex

“…85 percent of what subjects worried about never happened…  …new research has found that you can rewire your brain to stop worrying.  It starts with the decision not to believe the misfortune that your worried thoughts see in your future. The part of the brain that causes stress reactions literally has the intelligence of a toddler.” – https://www.huffingtonpost.com/don-joseph-goewey-/85-of-what-we-worry-about_b_8028368.html

“…The process of noticing, and breaking thoughts down will help you immensely in becoming more aware and less reactive to negative thoughts that drain your energy and limit your growth.” – http://onewithnow.com/aware-of-thoughts/

KEEPING ALL OF THE ABOVE IN MIND, HOW ABOUT THIS?

• Throughout the day, OBSERVE YOUR THOUGHTS and emotions.
• Whenever a DISTURBING EMOTION such as worry, guilt, etc. comes up, DO A REALITY CHECK (since we worry so much, this should give ample opportunities for reality checks throughout the day.)
• Follow up and

1. EVALUATE THE THOUGHTS THAT CAUSED YOUR EMOTIONS – WERE THEY IRRATIONAL, UNREALISTIC, SEF-DEFEATING?
2. Come up with RATIONAL AND CONSTRUCTIVE ALTERNATIVE WAYS OF BELIEVING OR THINKING

• REPEAT, repeat, repeat

 I call it EMOTION INDUCED REALITY CHECK – EIRC. 

The post MIXING PSYCHOLOGY AND REALITY CHECKS – Using Awareness Of Emotions To Induce Reality Checks and Rational Thinking appeared first on LUCID DREAM RESEARCH.

…In fact, the dream sleep stage…has been suggested as a model for schizophrenia…and there is some evidence that psychosis may be conceptualized as sleeping mentation entering the waking state… The various nocturnal consciousness characteristics that have been related to stress, negative emotion, or psychopathological symptoms include—but are not limited to—traumatic and non-traumatic nightmares…, recurrent dreams…falling asleep…, dream bizarreness, and hypnagogic hallucinations…” Nirit Soffer-Dudek – Consciousness and Psychopathology Laboratory, Department of Psychology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel – Frontiers in Psychology, journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00733/full

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“According to Carl Jung this [shadow] is our darker side of our psyche…”We use our dark side or shadow to display activities our ego is not comfortable with.”…” – Psychology Dictionary – https://psychologydictionary.org/shadow/

“According to Jung, the shadow, in being instinctive and irrational, is prone to psychological projection, in which a perceived personal inferiority is recognized as a perceived moral deficiency in someone else. Jung writes that if these projections remain hidden, “The projection-making factor (the Shadow archetype) then has a free hand and can realize its object—if it has one—or bring about some other situation characteristic of its power.”^[6] These projections insulate and harm individuals by acting as a constantly thickening veil of illusion between the ego and the real world.”  – Wikipedia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_(psychology)

CHARLIE MORLEY is a well known lucid dream mentor, author, and instructor who has integrated “Shadow Work” into his teachings. His articles, books and videos reflect his vast experience with both lucid dreaming and ‘shadow’ psychology. His works are easy and fun to follow as he combines personal anecdotes with humor, a vast knowledge of the topics, honesty and self-awareness.

CHARLIE MORLEY – “THE DARK SHADOW IN A NUTSHELL” – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgatVCc7NMA

CHARLIE MORLEY – “WHAT IS THE SHADOW?” – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLo6zG3tjdw

CHARLIE MORLEY – “SHADOW DREAMING” – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zhh6vZVyanE

CHARLIE MORLEY – “WHAT IS THE GOLDEN SHADOW?” – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxocZ-Au8SM

CHARLIE MORLEY On Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/charliemorleyluciddreaming/

CHARLIE MORLEY’S WEBSITE: http://www.charliemorley.com/

Additional Articles:

Transcending the shadow self through lucid dreaming – Gustavo Castañer – Ascended Relationships –  http://ascendedrelationships.com/integrating-shadow-self/

“Sex with your shadow?” – Reddit – Are You Dreaming? – https://www.reddit.com/r/LucidDreaming/comments/1b6j0s/sex_with_your_shadow/

“Carl Jung on Accepting the Darkness of Self and Others” – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvgmyaSTosg

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Weighing the Pros and Cons of a Device That Can Record Your Dreams

By Gardner Eeden

July 28^th, 2018

–ST. LOUIS, MO

Instead of binge-watching the latest viral Netflix series, how about watching yourself in episodes of your own twisted inner dream world on Dreamflix?

As gaming and social media tech companies are rushing to give us immersive, interactive, “first-person” mind-blowing virtual experiences, a handful of smaller startups and researchers are trying to capture the ultimate virtual world we all inhabit naturally—the dream.  The idea of a dream recorder (DR) isn’t just fantasy.  People are working on it.

A device that can record and display our inner thoughts, imagination, and dream world would be one of the most profound devices ever created–but some may wonder if it should be created in the first place.  What are the benefits and consequences of technology that might one day put all our brightest and darkest thoughts on display?  How well have these companies considered the ramifications of the technology?  Such a device would arguably do as much or more to alter human behavior than psychotropic drugs, Crispr, and gene splicing combined.

Imagine the marketable form of such a device; something that combines the abilities of an fMRI, EEG, and video recorder that’s portable enough to attach comfortably to your body.  In essence, a device not unlike a smart phone or smart watch, with tiny electrodes that feed from the brain’s electrical signals in order to record our inner visualization, or that can read biosignals from your skin.

What would actually be recorded?  To start, we’d capture an ongoing series of random images as crude visualizations, not unlike how we experience the dream; it would record pure, fractured thought as it’s formulated.  It could be calibrated and set to infiltrate our near-subconscious levels of thought, then dive to deeper layers to get to deep stage dreaming.  Assuming we are conscious in this state all the time (biconsciousness), whether asleep or awake in the world, we would not necessarily need to be asleep to use such a device.

Would our DR be able to capture sound as well, even if no actual sound waves are generated within the dream?  Would it capture our perception of sound and convert it to an audible and understandable track within the device?  It would certainly need to be able to provide instant playback and the ability to send the captured video imagery to your laptop or another source.

In one approach, we’d need to establish a baseline of conscious imagery and build a database of our particular visual perceptive data, as has been done in experiments by Dr. Yukiyasu Kamitami, with the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International in Kyoto.  We all imagine things—even a ball, a dog, a girl—somewhat differently.  Just like Siri and Alexa need to get to know your voice—the intonation and dialect you speak—the DR would need to understand what signals fire when you think of certain objects.  After extensive mapping, a subject then sleeps in an MRI machine (no small feat in itself), and her visualizations are captured and matched to her database.  With this, researchers have a very rough but often accurately close estimate of objects she sees within her dream.

Another approach is utilized with Dormio, a hand/finger device which collects biosignals that track transitions in sleep stages (such as muscle tone and heart rate change), specifically to study hypnagogia, the stage between waking and sleeping.  Adam Haar Horowitz, a researcher with the Media Lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology,  stated in a BBC interview that “The waking you will be more connected to the sleeping you and that connection between the two is a form of self-discovery.”

Then, there’s CloudX, a Los Angeles-based startup that seeks to directly record dream imagery, speech and motor behavior.  It would use a combination of EEG, fMRI, fNRIS and EMG to produce a crude taped recreation of your dream.  This project is in its startup phase and doing work with the professional dream research community, including the IASD (International Association for the Study of Dreams).

This is all a far cry from watching your last night’s dreams on an app no more complicated than Hulu.  None of these projects, whether for research or commercial usage, are promising hi-res, 4K playback—or any meaningful playback at all.

But let’s assume these technical challenges are achieved; we can capture our dream, video and sound both, and replay it on a device.    We would have countless hours of video, something akin to watching a cloudcam display that we would desperately try to make sense of (just as we attempt to interpret the dream), because we wouldn’t be able to understand it all.  It would give us generations of data to process about our own thoughts; we could easily become obsessed, even addicted, to watching and dissecting our dreams.  Indeed, the 1985 Wim Wenders film Until the End of the World gave us just such a scenario, in which people became utterly addicted to watching their own dream replay.

Perhaps most importantly, we are not going to like much of what we see—especially if watching the playback of our lovers, spouses, friends, and children.  Even St. Augustine was terrified that God would judge his actions within the dream.  Are we ready to experience our darker sides that we rarely acknowledge?  Would it open the way for self-reflection and healing, or open the door to new, bolder (or pathological) ways of behaving in the world?  It’s possible that our behavior in social media has already given us a clue.

Then throw into the mix an ability to spur lucidity within the dream.  With stronger degrees of lucidity, we can be in the dream environment and do whatever we want—exercise our super powers of flight, strength, and speed; conjure any figure we like to interact with them; and have sexual encounters with anyone in the dream or anyone we can imagine.  What would we do with a recording of us living out our wildest fantasies?  Would we be posting these on Dreamflix or DreamHub?

Let’s consider how culture, industry, and other fields could be revolutionized by DR technology.

The subconscious mind, and thusly all imagery that it generates, is perception, not factual truth.  It is both highly subjective and objective, a paradox of self-reflection.  Rest assured, if humans can abuse a technology, we will.

HEALTH/MEDICAL

An entire new industry would spring up within the fields of neurology, psychology, and behavioral sciences.

Imagine being able to explore the inner mind of someone, such as an autistic child, who can’t outwardly express themselves in an understandable way.  Or, perhaps, someone in a physical coma whose mental activity seems shuttered.  What clues would be yielded from unedited broadcasts from the subconscious?  Could the DR (Dream Recorder) open ways of communicating with those we couldn’t previously understand?

Imagine how this might shed light on the trapped mentalities of an autistic individual, someone suffering from schizophrenia, dementia, or just delusions in general.  Could we develop any insights into how they might view the world?  People prone to psychosomatic illnesses might be able to trace the origin of such delusions.

In the world of psychology, new treatments for people who display psychopathic behavior might be discovered.  When the subconscious is made visible, we become exposed in ways far more intimate than our guarded confessions during therapy sessions.  However, visualization of actions from the dream would be far from trust-worthy for the sake of diagnoses.  The dream is where we exist unencumbered by laws of physics and morality, and surreal, obtuse events from the dream would be ripe for misinterpretation (just as the “interpretation” of dreams now).  Psychiatrists sometimes use dreamwork as a means of overcoming debilitating fears; a DR could offer an entirely new approach.

Individuals would likely need to give legal consent to DR usage, whether awake or asleep.   Countless ethical issues could arise in considering the devices as tools of treatment in psychiatric therapy.  HIPAA laws and restrictions would certainly need a rewrite.

SCIENCE

Recorded imagery would be a scientific playground and/or battleground, rife with sparring factions of “materialists” (who believe that all consciousness, imagery and dream activity is physically based within the brain) and “fundamentalists” (who believe, to varying degrees, that consciousness is a fundamental force of the universe along with gravity, electromagnetism, and the nuclear forces).  Would actual recorded evidence of subconscious activity provide real clues to explore regarding the origin and nature of consciousness itself?

First and foremost would be the pressing question that undermines all of reality TV, and also of quantum particle physics:  being observed can change a particle’s state, and people who know they are being observed (or even suspect so) will change their behavior.  But could they actually alter subconscious activity knowing that the activity would be viewed?  Double-blind experiments may prove difficult and ineffective.

We could broaden the study of conscious experience and capture dream imagery at its shallowest layers—from the moment we close our eyes and our own inner visualization takes over.  We could prove whether or not a “hypnogogic” state emerges from a different visual toolbox that transforms into dream imagery as we ride the conscious waves into—and through—our sleep cycles.  Vitally, we could record our subconscious imagery even as we are awake and conscious with most of our attention and focus turned to the physical world.  This is the basis of biconsciousness.

The ability to become lucid is key to using this technology to push the current limits of our conscious experience.  Avid lucid dreamers could be enlisted to control their dream activities and do exercises that expand their simultaneous awareness in the world and the dream.  They would become mental athletes in training.  How far can they go?  Would it be like an athlete watching tape of the day’s game; analyzing where they went wrong, what mistakes they made when losing lucidity, and how to correct them next time?  After repeated viewings, they could learn how to hone their attention and focus to strengthen their dream stamina and control—and take it to new extremes.

ENTERTAINMENT

A recording device that displays all our wildest fantasies and epic surreal thought lines would be immensely addictive to watch and to learn about ourselves.  Imagine taking a mental “selfie” of your current deep state thought.  Would you be willing to share it with your friends?  Your parents?  Your wife or lover?

We would create “ultimate dream warrior” competitions; first person to achieve a wild goal within the dream wins.  Lucid dreamers might broadcast their wild adventures; the “found footage” genre would have an entirely new springboard in which to experiment.

Put the DR on as you listen to music.  You would essentially create your own music video to go along with it.  Artists of all media—film, music, painting—could generate an endless creative loop that feeds on itself, exploring within the dream works of theirs that haven’t yet been produced, and producing them in the world.

We could possibly learn to value pure experience over “story.”  People would create YouTube channels that are, literally, made of themselves, giving new meaning to “YouTube.”

Perhaps, at long last, we will be able to realize that people rarely, if ever, dream of “midgets” and people talking backward (thanks, David Lynch, for that trope).  Maybe when confronted with real dream imagery and action, Hollywood will stop thinking that dreams are meant to tell stories or underscore plot lines.  We don’t fold buildings in perfect geometrical lines, and shootouts are rare (thanks Christopher Nolan).

MILITARY

As with most technology, the military, especially in the hands of outlying terrorist factions, could put machines like this to horrible use.  They could record the dreams of POWs and use them as interrogation bumpers.  Sleep deprivation is already one of the most heinous torture methods.  One of the last remaining comforts of a POW is that their captors can’t get in their heads.

Most frighteningly, if we can indeed capture video from the dream, would we also be able to insert visualizations into the dream?  Brainhacking is a thing…would dreamhacking be far behind?  And could it be used as a new form of subversive or subliminal advertising and marketing, or, worse, as a means of intimidating or terrifying an opponent?

If the reverse DR technology is realized and we are able to inject another person’s experiences into our conscious arena (just like the plot device in Kathryn Bigelow’s stunning 1995 film, Strange Days), groups could simulate terrifying and tragic experiences.

Military training might seek to tap into the wild and lawless “id” to further train special forces to prepare them for “black ops” missions.

RELIGION

If our consciousness is an intrinsic and vital part of our sense of self and our sense of spirituality, would these devices harness a more powerful tool for exploring, in a spiritual way, our connectedness with the universe?  For centuries, some have felt that God speaks to them through their dreams; would people start seeing God in their dreams, the way we see Jesus in a piece of toast?

We would certainly see aspects of ourselves and our free, subconscious behavior that we might not recognize.  As Carl Jung once wrote, “one does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.”

Most of these ideas may seem far-fetched now, but we have to remember just decades ago when artificial intelligence and quantum computing were the stuff of science fiction.  Brilliant minds of today are cautioning against the rush to usage of technology we barely comprehend, technology that could be devastating and catastrophic in the wrong hands.  It often comes down to weighing whether the benefits would be worth the abuses.

And so we ask the question that ethical scientists have asked for centuries: If we can, does it mean we should?  Captain Kirk from Star Trek was wrong.  “Space…the final frontier…”.  The final frontier is exactly the frontier we started with…our own mind.

GARDNER EEDEN is a writer, photographer and avid lucid dreamer and author of Lucid: Awake in the World and the Dream.  He recently presented his groundbreaking workshop on biconsciousness, “Lucidity & the Biconscious Mind” at the International Association for the Study of Dreams conference in Scottsdale, AZ.  Eeden is producing a new video and workshop series titled “Hardcore Lucid: WTF, Dream?” that will be available in spring of 2019.  You can follow him on Facebook or Twitter @gardnereeden.  For interviews/correspondence, email: gardnereeden@gmail.com

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One of the first of its kind, this APA-Approved Continuing Education (CE) Online Seminar introduces skills training to mental health professionals who are interested in lucid dreaming as a form of treatment.

Kristen LaMarca PhD is specialized in psychophysiology and behavioural treatments for sleep disorders. She co-facilitates lucid dreaming training programs for the Lucidity Institute. Teaming up with Stephen LaBerge and Benjamin Baird, she recently concluded a study that examined the use of galantamine to induce and/or increase the frequency of lucid dreams.

Seminar Information:  https://www.mindfulluciddreaming.com/luciddreamingtherapy-ce?fbclid=IwAR1V_rQnk-yViVjwM6x4u5LXDqMLJ5x5ICw71Cg33LhgvCwytkAmnK0yme8

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“Compassion motivates people to go out of their way to help the physical, mental or emotional pains of another and themselves. Compassion is often regarded as having sensitivity, an emotional aspect to suffering…“Compassion involves “feeling for another” and is a precursor to empathy, the “feeling as another”… compassion is the desire to alleviate another’s [or your own] suffering…” – Wikipedia

“In lucid meditation, we are already awake, yet we try to connect with the power of the dream realm. Translated into waking life, this ability, cultivated during meditation, develops the power of our subtle senses. This capacity affirms our essential unity with all of life. It cultivates compassion, awareness, and a sense of our being in the flow of things.” – Excerpted from the book Living in the SuperMind—From Personal Mind to Spiritual Mind by Dr. Maurie Pressman and provided by the publisher: https://manyhands.com/eyes-on-books/opening-to-the-supermind-through-lucid-dreaming-and-lucid-meditation/

When you wake up in a dream in this sense you empathize with the perspectives of other self-aspects rather than simply accept the consensus reality of the dream at face value. In some important respects, this is more powerful than lucid dreaming because it amplifies the six core qualities.  It is compassionate, in that it strives to empathize with the perspectives of other sentient beings appearing in your dream.” – From the text DREAM YOGA – Joseph Dillard – http://www.dreamyoga.com/challengeslucid-dreaming/  

“Compassion is the sometimes fatal capacity for feeling what it’s like to live inside somebody else’s skin… Dreaming can be a school for this kind of compassion… “The shock of realizing I am in a black man’s body makes me conscious I am dreaming. Now lucid, I stay with the dream… I am fascinated by discovering what it feels like to have your genitals outside your body… Now I’m walking down the street, in this black man’s body… I smell delicious food aromas wafting from a restaurant… Two white men at the door tell…“Sure you can come in, boy. You can eat watermelon.” … I feel boiling anger rising inside me… I pull out of the dream.”  I asked Norma how she felt about this dream adventure inside a black man’s body. “I felt exhilarated,” she told me without hesitation. “I felt sad about the racism that black man had to contend with, yet grateful that I could share a part of his life.”  “If only all of us could have this experience of being inside other people’s skins, we could get rid of a lot of our prejudices and social problems.” – Belifnet – Posted by Robert Moss – http://www.beliefnet.com/columnists/dreamgates/2012/05/compassionate-dreaming-living-inside-somebody-elses-skin.html

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“Could we one day heal the mind by taking control of our dreams?…

…Brain regions involved in meta-cognition are among the most activated in lucid dreaming…

…In principle, lucid dreaming may be a powerful tool for promoting insight and emotional change, as one gains moment-by-moment conscious access to the workings of the mind – including suppressed feelings. This may even offer a way to work with issues such as addiction, just as a hypnotherapist may approach a nicotine addiction by suggesting a conscious intent to the subconscious mind…” – July 14, 2016 – Adhip Rawal – Lecturer In Psychology, University of Sussex – theconversation.com/could-we-one-day-heal-the-mind-by-taking-control-of-our-dreams-60886 …

The post The Relation Of Metacognition And Lucid Dreams; And The Possible Treatment Approaches That Come With It appeared first on LUCID DREAM RESEARCH.

“Internal vs. External Locus of Control

People who base their success on their own work and believe they control their life have an internal locus of control. In contrast, people who attribute their success or failure to outside influences have an external locus of control.” – study.com – Chapter 7/Lesson 5 – Instructor: Rob Wengrzyn

“Lucid dreaming: Associations with internal locus of control, need for cognition and creativity”

“…Frequent lucid dreamers have previously been shown to be more internal on Rotter’s Locus of Control (LOC) scale than are non-lucid dreamers. The present study found that frequent lucid dreamers had higher scores than non-lucid dreamers on the Internal dimension of Levenson’s LOC scale, but not on Levenson’s LOC Powerful Others and Chance dimensions…

…and also occasional lucid dreamers…, also scored significantly higher on Need for Cognition and on Gough’s self-assessed Creative Personality scale, than did non-lucid dreamers…

…The results indicate a continuity between styles of waking and dreaming cognition, just as previous work has shown a continuity of content…”  –  Lucid dreaming: Associations with internal locus of control, need for cognition and creativity

January 2000

The above includes excerpts of the article by M. Blagrove*, S.J. Hartnell – Department of Psychology, University of Wales Swansea, Swansea, SA2 8PP, UK, Received 30 September 1998

Locus of Control

YouTube

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“…Similarities in brain activity during lucid dreaming and psychosis suggest that the previously discredited technique of dream therapy may be useful in psychiatric treatment, according to a European Science Foundation workgroup. People suffering from nightmares can sometimes be treated by training them to dream lucidly so they can consciously wake up.  – European Science Foundation. ” – ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 29 July 2009 – https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090728184831.htm

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What do you think of Persinger’s arguments?

science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/brain-religion2.htm

The following are excerpts from Wikipedia relating to Michael Persinger and his experiment with the God Helmet.

“…Michael A. Persinger (born June 26, 1945) is a physical neuroscientist and natural philosopher… He has argued that all phenomena including consciousness, spiritual experiences, and “paranormal events” can be explained by universal physical mechanisms… Persinger has argued that quantitative differences in energy, rather than qualitative distinctions, are responsible for the apparent mind-body duality…

…Most of Persinger’s published articles involved with consciousness have focused upon the persistence of experiences reported by individuals who display complex partial epilepsy within the normal population of people who were creative, subject to frequent paranormal experiences or who had sustained a mild impact of mechanical energy to the cerebrum. One of his notable experiments over about three decades involved a helmet (“the God Helmet”) whereby weak physiologically patterned magnetic fields were applied across the temporal lobes of hundreds of volunteers. The research received wide media coverage[34][35][36] with high-profile visitors to Persinger’s laboratory including Susan Blackmore and Richard Dawkins reporting positive[37] and negative[38] results respectively.

Experiences often associated with mystical reports such as out-of-body-experiences, intrusive thoughts, and the sensed presence were reported by hundreds of volunteers over decades of studying the phenomenon which were not associated with the subjects’ suggestibility.[39][40] Subsequent theory and quantitative electroencephalographic measurements supported the contention that the sensed presence of a “sentient being” could be a normal brain-based prototype for god experiences or related mystical phenomena and was actually the left hemispheric awareness of the right hemispheric equivalent to the left hemispheric sense of self…

…Quantum biophysics[edit] –

Persinger suggested that ultraweak photon emissions (picoWatt per meter squared) could serve as a medium through which local and non-local space could be connected.[53] Power densities of spontaneous background photon emissions indicated potential solutions for Lorentz contractions and galactic sources that define the properties of space-time.[54…”

“…Anecdotal reports by journalists,[6] academics[7][8] and documentarists[9] have been mixed and several effects reported by Persinger have not yet been independently replicated…” … – Wikipedia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Persinger

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“…four of the seven congenitally blind subjects who were totally blind had no indications of visual imagery in their dream reports..” – www2.ucsc.edu/dreams/Library/hurovitz_1999a.html

Do blind people lucid dream?
www.dreamviews.com/general-lucid-discussion/88320-do-blind-people-lucid-dream.html

The Dreams of Blind Men and Women: A Replication and Extension of Previous Findings – www2.ucsc.edu/dreams/Library/hurovitz_1999a.html …

What do blind people dream of? – Team LucidDream – Published on Sep 28, 2016 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQ5679_dI_E

“Do the Blind Literally “See ” in Their Dreams?… – Nancy H. Kerr, Oglethorpe University, G. William Domhof, University of California, Santa Cruz – http://www2.ucsc.edu/dreams/Library/kerr_2004.html

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“The results show that lucid dreamers scored higher on the creative personality scale of the Adjective Checklist and reported a higher DRF than non-lucid dreamers. As to the dream structure, lucid dreamers were more likely to incorporate daytime events into their dreams, and their dreams had a higher personal significance than those of non-lucid dreamers.” – International Journal of Dream Research Volume 6, No. 2 (2013) By Nicolas Zink & Reinhard Pietrowsky – https://www.researchgate.net/publication/280803703_Relationship_between_Lucid_Dreaming_Creativity_and_Dream_Characteristics

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TheRaRaRabbit

A tall man in a short man's body.

YouTube

4azsWP9hEelA

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A video by Maxwell Hunter, a UK based artist and oneironaut, about lucid dreaming and mental health – Youtube –  TheRaRaRabbit – Published on May 24, 2017  

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with…

www.youtube.com

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“The illusory nature of physical reality, creative consciousness & the universal mind. Featuring Fred Alan Wolf, Nassim Haramein, Amit Goswami, Jim Al Khalili, Greg Braden, Bill Hicks & David Icke. (music: Rachid Taha “Barra Barra”)” – Youtube – Published on Feb 23, 2012 –  Agape Satori – https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=h87zRgEJQi0&app=desktop 

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